Chasing Cinderella (Book one of the Cinderella Series) (Completed)

Chapter 1 (Edited)

"Ella! Get the fire started you, Lazy Girl," she said coming into my room.

I yawned and sat up. "Morning to you, too," I said curtly. Cruella DeVil, I added in my head.

"When Korren hears about you being lazy," she warned, wagging her finger at me.

I sighed. Same old, same old, if you do this and Korren finds out this then... Korren will beat you mercilessly. However, Korren wasn't always like that. No he was not.

"It's four o'clock in the morning," I said getting out of bed, shaking my head to wake myself up. "And, I'm up. You don't have to call Korren to beat me, again."

"Ugh, children," she said flinging her hands up in the air in that 'what to do with them' type of way. She shook her head and started to mutter every curse word, she knew, as she left the basement.

I rolled my eyes and started to get dressed knowing that Korren would be hearing of me, again.

***

I walked out of the house a few minutes later, moving a hand through my hair as I pulled into a ponytail and chomping on the remains of a donut that I had "stolen" from the breakfast platter after I had started the fire like my step-mother had told me to.

It was chilly Saturday morning, as winter started to become spring once again. I rubbed my hands together, trying to get them warm as I started walked into the stables, smelling the freshness of the straw and listening to the snorts of the horses as I had turned on the barn light.

"Morning, Guys," I said as I walked into the feed room. "Anyone hungry?" I shook a bucket, making sounds of grain moving against each other, and got a couple of whinnies in reply.

I smiled a little as I started to fill the buckets of food, humming a little to myself as I worked, not caring that I spilt some food on the ground, knowing that one of the dogs would eat it.

Sure enough, a white Maltese walked up and started to wag her tail at me before starting to pick up the pieces of grain that had been dropped.

I laughed a little. "You're going to get fat, Pippa, and Her Highness is going to yell at me," I said as I placed another scoop into the bucket that I had.

The dog looked at me and wagged her tail before munching up the food. It's strange, how sometimes dogs eat horse food, even though there isn't really any meat in it.

I shook my head again as I started to put the supplements that the horses needed into each one. "Lavender for Blue," I muttered to myself adding it to my Thoroughbred's feed bucket and mixing it in. I smiled a little as I added it, knowing that it kind of helped the skittish 6 year old gelding, even though Thoroughbreds are always skittish.

"I hear someone in the barn," a male voice said. "Who's in here?"

I looked up as I heard footsteps, thinking that it was Korren to come and give me a licking after talking back to my step-mother. I sighed in relief as I saw that it was just Red, the Scottish stable-hand that had been here since before my mother had died and my father had even married again. "Good, it's you," I said with a sigh of relief of I scooped some more supplements into my horse's feed bucket.

"Mornin' to you too, Lass," he said with a chuckle. He looked at Pippa as she yipped a little and ran towards him. "Hey there, are you keeping our girl out of trouble?" he asked running a hand over her ear, having the dog close her eyes a little and go into the scratch.

"Careful, Red," I said teasingly. "Delilah won't like it to see that you're touching her dog."

"Ah, she doesn't scare me, and why don't you call her mother?" he asked looking up at me. He raised an eyebrow and smiled, letting me know that he was teasing, since he had all ready knew the reason that I don't call her mom, mommy, or mother.

"You know," I said rolling my eyes a little. I knelt down and Pippa came at me. I scratched her behind the ear, silently, glaring at the floor. "I can't wait until I'm 18," I said after a little while getting up, even though it caused the dog to whimper a little.

Red nodded his head. "I know," he said. "Come on, Lass, let's get those horses fed so you can get something other than the donut you stole." He smirked a little when he saw me looking away. "You have a little bit of white powder on your cheek," he added.

"I didn't know," I said rubbing it off. "Thanks for telling me before Korren got here."

"What about Korren?" another male voice asked.

Oh great. Just what I needed.